The Pendulum Swings

We often look at ideas as all or nothing. We may implement one approach only, in time, to swing back to its opposite.

We should centralize business functions to save money. 

We should decentralize functions to increase our responsiveness. 

We should focus on growing by acquisition. We don’t need to foster innovation. We just need to buy companies that have innovated. 

We should only grow organically. If we can’t innovate our growth won’t be sustainable. 

We should manage by hierarchy. Command and control is the only way to make progress.

We need to manage by consensus so everyone’s on board with our direction. 

New concepts, methods, and tools rarely apply universally.

But how can we find the right balance?

We could start by asking ourselves (and our colleagues) a few questions: 

• Where did this idea work before and why (strategy and tactics) was it successful?
• What results did they get? What results do we expect?
• Is this situation the same here as where this worked?
  • Industry, products, and services?
  • Culture and values?
  • Organizational competencies?
  • Management structure? (How and where are decisions made? By whom?)
• If not, how is it different and what might we do to adapt this concept to our company?
  • Which parts do we think will work? Why?
  • Which parts won’t? Why?
  • Will partial implementation be valuable or will it undermine the idea completely?
• Do I, or does anyone on my team, have first hand experience implementing this concept?
• Are there any experts available that have done this before?
• What are the risks? And mitigations?
• What do we need to do to get started?

This list is not intended to stall progress. It’s simply a sanity check to help us reflect, adapt, and apply ideas where, how, and IF they apply.

It’s also by no means exhaustive. I’d love to hear what questions you’d add.

Comments

[ann michael]

Hi Ellen!

Thanks for the comment. If you haven't already, take a look at the trackback Tim wrote (Carpe Factum). He does a great job of illustrating how a little agreement can go a long way!

Ann

[Ellen Weber]

Ann, I like the idea of tweaking and speaking to the parts -- thanks for the reminder to hold and cherish what works and change or dump the rest! The key is to know the difference:-) Great stuff!

[ann michael]

Steve -

You're exactly right. One reason I was starting to think of these questions was to provide a vehicle to help someone move from a "should" mindset to a "could" mindset (although I didn't communicate it as well as you did!).

I run into the same problem you mention - people have already decided what they want to do before thinking about if it could really benefit them and if it's suitable to their organization.

Thanks for a great clarification (and adding me to your blogroll too)!

Ann

[Steve]

Hi Ann,
Great post.

I guess I'd try and move back a bit and try adn get the client to reframe questions using 'could' not 'should.'

E.G. How could we increase our responsiveness? How could we grow?

In my experience, too many clients jump straight to the 'should' without spending enough time exploring the 'coulds'.

PS I've just added you to my blogroll

Best Wishes
Steve